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Boston Marathon bombing

The clock on the video said 2:49pm, and it was hard to imagine that anyone in the courtroom didn’t know what was coming up next. In the nearly two years since two bombs exploded near the finish line of the April 2013 Boston Marathon, footage of the two fireballs erupting along Boylston Street, one after the other, has been replayed millions of times, accompanied by gruesome photos and video of the bloody aftermath.

But as prosecutors began presenting their case against accused bomber Dzhokhar Tsarnaev on Wednesday with silent footage of those deadly bombs that killed three people and injured nearly 300 more, there was an edge in the air among the jurors, victims and others inside the Boston federal courtroom where the trial is taking place.

On the screen, dozens of runners could be seen dashing toward the finish line, not knowing that two pressure-cooker bombs filled with nails and ball bearings would soon turn that sunny Monday afternoon into a day of infamy. But the people in the courtroom knew something terrible was coming, and, in some ways, knowing seemed to make it worse. As the seconds ticked by, they stared at the video with the kind of nervous, sick anticipation that can only be likened to watching a horror film—and it only got worse throughout the day as prosecutors unveiled the first few clips of what is expected to be extensive and often graphic video evidence aimed at convincing jurors that Tsarnaev is guilty and should die for his alleged role in the deadly attacks. (Holly Bailey/Yahoo News)